The best relationships work because both sides choose each other. In B2B, the same principle applies — but too many companies forget it.
My wife often reminds me how much it mattered that I chose her — and she chose me. That symmetry is the backbone of enduring partnerships, personal or professional.
There’s a human layer here — prioritizing relationships over transactions — and a business layer: CAC and LTV.
Customers who choose you cost less to acquire and push long-term CAC even lower by becoming advocates. According to Hubspot, “inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound leads.”
Customers that actively choose you have higher lifetime value and churn less. According to First Round Review, “High-intent inbound leads typically deliver 30–50% higher LTV compared to cold outbound opportunities, due to stronger retention and upsell rates.”
This dynamic has been amplified by AI. Buyers now control the journey more than ever. They want to buy, not be sold.
Before you can be chosen, you need to be found. How awareness occurs has changed dramatically.
Outbound was always a brute-force way to turn dollars into awareness. But today, traditional outbound feels pushy and disconnected from how modern buyers actually buy.
B2B buyers research heavily online before ever engaging a salesperson. According to HubSpot, 60%+ of the decision is made before talking to sales, showing the importance of being discoverable and credible inbound.
More and more of that research is AI assisted. The transition from the default for online research being “type a query into a search box that returns ten blue links” to “type a query into an AI chat box that returns an answer” is a fundamental shift in how discovery happens. Google search isn’t going anywhere, but the focus has shifted from the links to the AI Overview. The value of buying keywords will erode as the value of authoritative organic content goes up.
The future of discovery looks like the following Perplexity prompt that a prospect recently shared with me:
Prompt:
“I am doing a comparison of different court management vendors for a Pickleball eatertainmnet facility. I do not want a mobile app, I want booking done through a website that rarely requires me to login. I want simplicity to book a court and share that with other friends who can modify based on the link. I care about it all being done with links. Compare these three vendors: PlayByPoint, CourtReserve, and Podplay. I don't care about price.”
Conclusion:
“For pickleball entertainment facilities prioritizing web-based booking, minimal logins, and collaborative link sharing, PodPlay emerges as the optimal choice. Its pricing models and dynamic invitation links empower users to coordinate reservations seamlessly, reducing administrative burdens. While PlayByPoint offers robust membership tools and CourtReserve excels in security, their reliance on traditional logins and static notifications limits adaptability in social, dynamic environments. PodPlay’s blend of simplicity, collaboration, and ancillary features like video replays positions it as the most aligned solution for modern, user-driven facilities.”
Building in public is becoming less choice than imperative in a world of AI-driven discovery. Stealth mode is invisible to an LLM.
As I have previously written, trust is a superpower. Showing your work builds trust. “Tell them what you are going to do and then go do it” is a simple strategy that is surprisingly difficult to execute in public because it requires commitment, clarity of thought, and a willingness to fail. Consistent messaging across channels builds trust — the foundation of any strong brand.
Former Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said, “A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept.”
To many, “brand” has always felt fuzzy — an intangible emotion tied to a logo or a slogan. But today, brand is concrete, measured by real buyer signals.
As Refine Labs has written, “You don’t need a brand book to know it’s working. You need real buyer signals.” Like:
The modern buyer’s journey shifts value away from short-term tactics with easy attribution (like paid ads) toward long-term brand and content investments that build trust, even if attribution is harder. That is scary. But for those willing to build in public, it will have compounding benefits.
PodPlay has leaned hard into this new paradigm. Our Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy prioritizes content over sales personnel. Our first sales intern started in June. Prior to that, all sales were handled by founders. We have never bought a keyword or run any paid advertising. We spend a small amount of money each quarter boosting organic content to increase our reach.
We serve two audiences: sports clubs and the end customers of those clubs. While the clubs are our clients, they succeed insofar as we create an amazing experience for their end customers.
We have different types of content that speaks to our target audiences:
Long Form Blogs. We seek to publish usable insights based on real experience running 20+ of our own clubs and serving hundreds of others. Each blog addresses a key pain point for clubs, provides a framework for thinking about the problem, relevant data, and the PodPlay solution. The common theme is how to drive club ROI through features that improve UX, increase revenues, and decrease costs. The blogs serve prospects actively researching and as demo follow ups. Our primary distribution channel for the blogs is LinkedIn, our website, and more recently being cited by LLM’s. Examples:
Short Form Video. These have viral potential, are highly engaging, and drive brand awareness. Short form video content includes replays and shorter segments clipped from long form video and / or podcast appearances. Replays are a digital form of word-of-mouth–the only thing better than telling your friends you had an amazing experience is showing them. Our purpose is two fold: increase awareness of PodPlay and give our club clients a model they can replicate to promote their own brands. We publish content on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Examples:
Long Form Video. We launched The Joy of Pickleball series with Kaitlyn Kerr in Q3 2024. We send Kaitlyn out to a PodPlay club once a quarter to capture the fun, the people, and the stories of great venues. We see our mission as building tools that increase the amount of fun in the world. The Joy of Pickleball has been effective for broad brand awareness and as video case studies that can be shared with prospects. We publish long form videos on YouTube and do posts on LinkedIn and Instagram to increase awareness of the long form videos. Examples include:
Podcasts. We have yet to launch our own podcast, but we regularly appear on podcasts. Long form conversations captured in digital form allow potential customers to “get to know” founders and the offering before meeting them. Shorter clips can be used to support other content and build relationships with audiences. If you think of your favorite podcast, you likely feel you “know” the host. This is a form of relationship building at scale. Examples include:
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: the best customers choose you. The most efficient GTM motion is to Be Found -> Be Chosen -> Be Loved. In a world of AI discovery and buyer-led journeys, investing in brand and content is no longer optional — it’s survival. We’re leaning into this shift at PodPlay, and if you’re ready to build relationships with customers who choose you, we’d love to show you how we can help facilitate those relationships.
The PodPlay Advantage
PodPlay gives venue operators all the tools they need to digitally manage a physical space - integrating video replays, automated scoreboards, and autonomous functionality with a reservation engine, event management, coach connect, membership module, and payments.
Originally built to power PingPod, the network of futuristic autonomous ping pong clubs, PodPlay is now being used to manage venues across pickleball, padel, ping pong, tennis, golf simulators, racing simulators, hockey, volleyball, soccer and pool, with more experience verticals to come in the future.
If you’re interested in learning more, request a demo.
In the age of generative AI, where the cost of creation has collapsed and anyone can spin up a halfway decent product, content stream, or marketing campaign, the most defensible advantage may well be taste.
Jun 23, 2025
As in previous eras, the winners in the era of AI, Automation & Integrated Tech will use technology to deliver amazing experiences for customers. Business models calibrated to the expectations of modern consumers will outperform and put competitive pressure on legacy players to evolve. Legacy operators risk obsolescence if they fail to align with shifting consumer expectations—much like Blockbuster in the Netflix era.
May 14, 2025